Virginia's baseball team savors, anticipates College World Series trip

O'Connor's Virginia baseball team earned its second College World Series appearance in three years Monday with a stirring, walk-off victory over UC Irvine. So needless to say, O'Connor is a mite preoccupied with chasing the program's first national championship.

In fact, Tuesday morning he set up the gone-fishin' auto-reply on his computer.

"It's been overwhelming," O'Connor said. "I think this year was even more just because of how we won the game."

Yes, there is that. Down to their last strike with no one on base, the Cavaliers overcame a 2-1, ninth-inning deficit.

David Coleman started the rally with a single on a 1-2 pitch from Anteaters ace Matt Summers, followed by Jared King's infield hit, pinch-hitter Reed Gragnani's walk to load the bases and, finally, Chris Taylor's game-winning, two-run single to center.

Virginia (54-10) is the NCAA tournament's top seed, and Coleman embodies the club's depth. He hits seventh in the order but ranks second in the ACC with a .366 average — Coleman was 4-for-12 in the Super Regional versus Irvine, 2-for-4 Monday.

Despite Coleman's sterling average, O'Connor has no intention of hitting him higher in the order.

"He's a guy who can ignite something at the bottom of the order," O'Connor said of the senior right fielder, a former Peninsula Pilot. "You won't see a change. … He's pretty darn valuable (there)."

The Cavaliers' first game at the eight-team CWS in Omaha, Neb., is Sunday against California. Tuesday they'll face either Texas A&M or defending champion South Carolina.

As of Tuesday afternoon's gabfest with reporters, O'Connor hadn't scouted Cal, but there's little doubt Virginia will start its best pitcher.

"It's not 100 percent yet, but I'd say there's a pretty good chance that Danny Hultzen will be getting the ball," he said.

Hultzen (12-3, 1.49 ERA) won Game 1 against Irvine, and two years ago started two of the Cavaliers' three CWS games. He allowed three runs in 9.1 innings combined against eventual champion LSU and Arkansas but was not involved in either decision — Virginia lost both.

The Cavaliers charter to Nebraska on Thursday morning and will encounter what O'Connor, an Omaha native and CWS historian, calls the "promised land" and "an absolute circus in a good way."